Grunt Glossary

Fat Grunt: A person who has more than his or her fair share of the equity relative to other participants.

Grunt: a person who works in a startup doing whatever it takes to make the company a success.

Grunt Hourly Resource Rate or GHRR!: the theoretical value of one person’s time relative to another person’s time. It is not an actual value, it is used to calculate an individual’s percent of the pie. May be expressed as a “Theoretical Value” (see below) or a the preferred term “Slice” (see below)

Skinny Grunt: A person who has less than his or her fair share of the equity relative to other participants.

Slice: A fictional unit of risk used to determine ownership or share of the pie. Replaces the term Theoretical Base Value of TBV as described below. $1 TBV = 1 Slice

Theoretical Value: A fictional unit of risk used to determine ownership or share of the pie expressed in the local currency. $1.00 in cash = $4.00 in Theoretical Value after applying the cash risk multiplier. $1.00 in non-cash = $2.00 after applying the non-cash risk multiplier. Not to be confused with actual value or pre-money value.

Theoretical Base Value or TBV: because start-up companies are assumed to have no actual value in a Grunt Fund we use theoretical values with allow us to understand how important one contribution is relative to another contribution. The TBV is the sum off all the theoretical values of all contributions from all participants. It is used to calculate an individual’s percent of the pie.

I’ve come to this page to look for the correct term for what we’ve been calling ‘grunt bucks’ is, i.e. what units the product of GHRR × hours should be expressed in. My copy of the book’s on loan right now, so I can’t check to see if there even is a word. I just want to know what to put at the top of our spreadsheet. ‘Pie segments’? ‘Crumbs’? ‘Grunt Output’? ‘Gruntput’?

In the book Slicing Pie I use the term “Theoretical Value” which would be expressed in your local currency. So, the Theoretical Value of $1.00 cash would be $4.00 after applying the cash multiplier.

In the book Fair & Square I use the term “Slices” which would be expressed as a “Slice”. So, $1.00 cash would convert to 4 slices.

In the Pie Slicer software and in my seminars I use the word slice because it underscores the fact that value is unknowable and the model is relying on risk, not actual value. I think it’s easier to understand.

No offense, but I really think the terminology here is misleading. Theoretical value should be exactly that … the expected value to the company which will be greater depending on who is doing it (an unknown promoting something vs. an influencer have 2 different theoretical values for the same task). You’re saying the theoretical value is the same for both, and then you add a multiplier. It’s just terminology … but it’s confusing. Why don’t you keep money out of the terminology and just call it hours, which translates in to different sized slices based on a multiplier?

the theoretical value of one person’s time relative to another person’s time. It is not an actual value, it is used to calculate an individual’s percent of the pie. May be expressed as a “Theoretical Value” (see below) or a the preferred term “Slice”